So when you read about wild strawberries, you may get all excited and ready to plant them. But hold your horses - there are not a lot of offers on the internet and whatever is offered is quite expensive. Yes, you could grow wild strawberries from seeds - a long process and rarely a successful one. And then you see it - a bright red small strawberry that grows on its own and seems to be very comfortable on your lawn, orchard or vegetable garden, you think - Let’s try it - oh, no! What were they talking about?! Taste - what taste, it is tasteless! Flavor - what flavor?! Congratulations - you've just met Indian strawberries or mock strawberries. Yes, it does not taste much and has no flavor, but to be fair, it gave you all the clues. The tiny flowers are yellow - the wild strawberry has white flowers. The tiny fruits are bright and pointed up, covered with seeds, while its cousin (yes, wild strawberries and mock strawberries are from the Rosaceae family) hides its sweet flavorful fruits under leaves. Do not ignore (or worse - get rid of) this small plant, just know it better. It is perennial. Covered with tiny yellow flowers and bright fruits from summer till fall it looks beautiful trailing from your flower pot. It is the best ground cover possible - it will suppress weeds, it will feed pollinators, it does not care about foot traffic and it is best to cover spring bulbs after they bloom. Plus it has medicinal uses - anticoagulant, antiseptic, depurative and febrifuge and used in decoction e.g. for swellings, and the fresh leaves can be crushed and applied externally as a poultice, e.g. for abscesses, boils, and burns. If you suffer from stomatitis, laryngitis, acute tonsillitis - this is your plant. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, mice, raccoons, and deer all love the berries. The leaves are an excellent food and tea, tasting faintly of cucumber (with a hint of sage) and widely available for almost the entire year. I will definitely encourage its growth and use it whenever necessary. Which, honestly could be often–the only plant that grows more prolifically in the off-season is ground ivy, equally edible but quite bitter once springtime has ended.
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